Handing 1-28-52- PREFACE. WHEN We take a retrospective view of the year 1858, now about to expire, we cannot but congratulate the Members of the CAMBRIAN INSTITUTE upon the great success which has attended the national cause. One deep source of gratification is the determination of government to publish our historical records, the first volume. of which, entitled Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicle of the Princes, is already in the press, to be followed immediately by others of a similar nature. In addition to this, the numerous Eisteddfodau, or bardic meetings, which have been held in divers parts of the Principality, and more especially the grand Llangollen Congress, indicate very clearly that the Welsh people have lost none of their national ardour, and that there is a craving among them for some more permanent institution, in which their own language will constitute an integral element. They seem pointedly to suggest the question whether provincial, or even parochial, schools should not be established in Wales, under the auspices of government, in which the competitive principle should be introduced, and form one of their most prominent characteristics. The Eisteddfod is a reflex of the Welsh mind, and those in high places ought certainly to take it into account in dealing with the educational condition of the Principality. We are given to understand that the compositions to which prizes were awarded at the recent national Eisteddfod will be published with as little delay as possible. This is a step in the right direction, as it is calculated to remove much of the prejudice entertained against meetings of this description, on the part of those who fail to see any practical results attending them, and will be the means of augmenting the store of our native literature. It gives us infinite pleasure to discern a growing desire among our English neighbours to learn our language, to countenance our distinctive usages, and to approach our records and traditions with a free and unbiassed mind. Indeed some have in these respects gone beyond several of our own countrymen, who, whilst they profess to study the antiquities of the Cymric nation, earnestly advocate the abolition of the Cymraeg, blind to the truth that "To study tribes without their speech, Is to grope for what our sight should teach.” The spread of these patriotic principles has had a visible effect upon the condition of the CAMBRIAN INSTITUTEan unprecedented number of new Members having joined it in the course of the past year. We feel much cheered by this circumstance, regarding it not only as a sign of a wider appreciation of British interests in general, but of approval in particular of the nature of the subjects which have been introduced into the pages of the CAMBRIAN JOURNAL. One of the main features of this Volume is the publication of MS. fragments, which, though highly valuable in a historical point of view, would in a few years no doubt have fallen a sacrifice to the bite of time, were they not thus rescued. We are in possession of a considerable store of these documents, which we shall from time to time bring to light. We may say, moreover, that several of our principal supporters have promised to contribute to our pages, in the ensuing year, original articles on the different subjects. which our Journal embraces, so as to make it as complete and as varied as possible. We wish our readers GWYLIAU LLAWEN A BLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDA. THERE is no doubt that a much greater attention is now being paid to Cymric affairs than was the case some few years ago. Welsh nationality is more generally respected -the literature of the country commands a wider circle of admirers-and etymological excellences have at length been discovered in the Cymraeg, which will assign to it a high position among the various tongues of the great human family. The opprobrium hurled against the bardic school is recoiling, and the old maxim of Taliesin, Myn y gwir ei le," is continually being verified. The allophyllian theory has been abandoned, the doctrine of a Gwyddelian pre-occupation finds no rest for the sole of its foot, and German scepticism evaporates into thin air; whilst every fresh discovery in the sciences of geology, ethnology, philology, or whatever else may bear upon SECOND SERIES, VOL. I. B |